Dealertrack set to launch user-centric DMS portal at NADA

A screenshot of DMS 360 within the Dealertrack DMS homepage. Photo courtesy of company.

Friday, Mar. 09, 2018, 04:37 PM

By Chris Hart-WilliamsStaff Writer

CARY, N.C. -

At the NADA Show 2018 event later this month, Dealertrack is set to introduce a new self-service portal known as DMS 360 for its dealership management system offering, says Dealertrack DMS senior vice president Paul Whitworth.

Via the new portal, dealers will be able to easily get support, interact with one another and with Dealertrack DMS team members.

“When Dealertrack joined with Cox Automotive about two years ago, we really started to look hard at what’s the right strategy for Dealertrack DMS now that its apart of a bigger company, and started to really dig in on what the purpose of DMS is, like how do dealers use DMS,” Whitworth explained during a phone interview with Auto Remarketing. “And it came out of a really different place and so what we’ve been doing is rather than focusing on adding more features and buttons to our software. We’ve really been focused on how to be easier to work with and make the software easier to use,” Whitworth continued.

In addition to providing peer-to-peer functionality where dealers can engage with other dealers, dealers can open a new support case or track the status of an existing one, and get instant access to DMS help documentation within the Dealertrack DMS Wiki.

Dealers will have access to DMS 360 through the help button on the home page.

“What’s really the focus of DMS 360, has been around peer to peer collaboration. So we’ve brought together key content from our business to help encourage people to come there in the first place,” Whitworth added.

Last year, Dealertrack added Performance Management to its DMS offering.

Starting at the beginning of last year each new dealership that joins Dealertrack DMS gets a Performance Manager who has been tasked with helping dealers maximize the full potential of their DMS and develop plans to achieve their business goals.

“They’re like a personal fitness trainer,” Whitworth said.

“They’re someone who has worked at a dealership, who reaches out on a monthly basis, to check in with you on how the software is performing for you, and how your business is performing,” he explained.

Another project that Whitworth said Dealertrack will continue on the DMS front this year is its two different kinds of user conferences.

“We held something called DMS Edge last year, in the fall, which was a virtual user conference over the Internet. We had over 3,500 of our clients join us for that,” he said.

The conference included training, news about the business and shared industry tips and tricks, according to Whitworth.

Last year, Dealertrack also held a controllers conference that sold out.

“We booked out space to host 150 controllers, and we sold out so we figured out how to squeeze 30 more people in, so we had 180 controllers with us for a couple days last year,” Whitworth explained. “This year, we’re really just trying to continue this momentum of what can we do to make our clients lives easier and make ourselves more relevant.”

This year’s, Dealertrack DMS Controllers Conference will be held in Park City, Utah from May 21 through 24 at the St. Regis Hotel.

Additionally, the second annual DMS Edge virtual event be in September. Dealertrack said that it is expecting over 10,000 clients to attend this year.

“We’ve got more stuff coming, we're looking at ways to offer more online trading to our users and more advanced training that’s focused on new employees to the dealership because they don’t always get trained properly,” added Whitworth. “We have a big project underway to really understand the best ways to use our software and sharing that more broadly with our users, we kind of are calling that our book of knowledge project.”

Dealertrack is the third-largest DMS provider by market share, according to Whitworth.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct a quote and the number of attendees at the DMS Edge event.